i’ve been really, really uncertain about what to do blog-wise. hence the whole “i’m moving. i’m gonna go anonymous.” and everything. well, turns out my lack of writing probably didn’t even have anything to do with who reads this. i have removed my complete name from this site a long time ago so nobody will find it by googling my real name. that’s probably the most important thing for me. other than that, this is where my blog is and this is where i will write as much (or as little) as i feel like. so enough of that topic now and i’m very sorry about the confusion.

a few weeks ago my BIL updated the software for me so i’m finally up to date and using wp 2.8. or something. after the update, some of the plugins in the sidebar didn’t work any more (category cloud, archives…) so i fixed that. i also realized that i didn’t have a feed available for your feed-readers *wha?* so i fixed that. AND i added a link list – as a drop-down-menu which i heart :) let me know if you would like to be added to the list.

sooo much for the “technicalities”. now, what’s been going on? oh boy, where to start…. well, we did move. duh. the weeks before and after the move were pretty stressful and busy (and also swept my not.even.really.big.enough.to.call.it.that “savings” clear). for a couple of weeks after the move i literally spent every free minute unpacking, organizing, cleaning, drilling and decorating. C was a lot more relaxed about it and would have taken more time but i really can’t relax on the couch when there’s still so.much.to.do. and i honestly enjoy the whole setting-things-up a lot more than he does – also, i’m getting my way a lot more often if i just do it myself *heh*

like i said in the last post – we are more than comfortable and 150% happy in the new place.

and how could we not be? here’s a bunch of pictures for you :) (more…)

wow. another year. 10-1 years. that’s pretty big and … time to look back :) our fourth anniversary. our fifth anniversary. our sixth anniversary. our seventh anniversary [@ mimi&rob's wedding] + an additional post i found while trying to find the anniversary ones [just because i think it's hilarious]. our eigth anniversary.

this picture was taken during my housewarming-party in september 2000. just a few weeks after we met and the first weekend C stayed over. it still makes me all giddy and warm on the inside.

since that day we have grown so much closer, went through so much sh*t together nobody should ever have to go through. especially within a time period less than ten years. but here we are. still going strong. for the most part anyway. there have been really rough times and talks in the past. there still are. we’re working “us” out almost every day. this relationship-stuff is hard. add self-doubts, depression, two countries, cultures and languages and you can end up looking at a pretty big mess. sometimes i don’t know if i can do this any longer … and then there are the times i look at him and i just love him so much, it almost hurts. luckily those times without a doubt outweight the other times by far.

i have never before felt so loved by someone else. even [and especially] on the days when i am far from loving myself. sometimes i don’t understand why. how he can love me this much. but he does. and he shows me all the time. he’s no romantic or fan of “the cheese” but he gets up to greet me in the hallway almost every day when i come home. he rubs my legs almost every night and he gives the best morning-hugs ever, always asks me how my day was and tells me how beautiful i am. he’s a freakin’ piece of work sometimes but i have no doubt we will make it another nine years and then another………. i love you, babe!

i had a hair-appointment last night after work. sweet sabine – who owns the salon – usually closes at six but with me working and being in serious NEED of new highlights and a cut, the only way to do it was for her to stay late. which she did. because she’s sweet like that. i went in at five and by the time we got out of there it was almost eight but it sure was worth it and we had a good time chatting… which is where the title comes in. sabine told me the most amazing story i think i’ve ever heard…

a couple of friends of hers bought a house last year. they didn’t have that much money to spend so they went with a pretty old one in really bad shape planning to fix things up mostly by themselves over time. apparently a guy around 50 years old inherited the house from his parents and had lived there his whole life. according to the neighbors he had been in pretty bad shape, unemployed, heavy smoker, unsocial… he just keeled over dead in his backyard one day. no family, no heirs, noone to care about or claim the house… officials had already checked for valuables and cleared the place for sale. so they got it for 80k. bought as seen. including all the sh*t that was still in the house. furniture and everything…

before they hired a company to clear it out they went through the things in the house again, to check if there was anything of value at all they’d want to keep. apparently there wasn’t. they way sabine described the place it must have been in horrible shape, everything decades old, dirty, broken and tinted yellowish-brown from nicotine. it didn’t look like there was anything worth keeping. until he found a bucket in a tiny closet in one of the rooms. a bucket full of … cash. 50 euro bills. tons of them. 120k of them! during the following few days they found more bills in tea-tins in the kitchen and a cookie-jar in the bedroom. they found a total of 200k [two hundred thousand euros!] in cash. apparently the guy had inherited not only the house but also that money from his parents and because he wanted to keep his welfare every month [harz IV] he just stacked the cash in the house and didn’t tell anyone about it.

they checked with their lawyer if it was legal to keep the money and apparently when they bought the house with all the sh*t in it, they also bought the money… so the bottom line is: they got a house + 120k on top. so they fixed up the house, put some money into a savings account and – best part – gave a bunch of their best friends a few thousand euros as a gift. sabine says if anyone deserves something like this it’s them and i just can’t stop smiling when i think about it. somehow it feels good to know that miracles DO happen. :)

soooo, another wedding was scheduled for last saturday. after some pre-celebrations and preparations, i spontaneously took friday off to fuel up for nina & benny’s big day. unfortunately after having been super lucky with the weather on the night of the polterabend and the day of the civil ceremony, the wedding day itself was rainy and cool. so the mood was kinda… in the morning. it’s not that big a deal but just a bummer considering they had chosen a really cute church and hired a photographer to take pictures at a castle nearby after the ceremony. but despite the rain it turned out to be a great and perfect day.

i got up real early after not sleeping too well [i guess i was more excited and nervous than i thought] and picked up betti to go to nina’s parent’s place around 10 am. pia and nina were already there as well as the woman who was doing nina’s hair and make-up. nina’s mom [who was soooo nervous, it was really cute] had prepared some sandwiches, coffee and prosecco and we just sat, had breakfast, chatted, giggled and hung out trying to keep the bride from getting too nervous. it was fun.

betti, me and nina’s mom left right around 2 pm and went to the church. a bunch of people were already there, more and more came and found a seat and i started getting really nervous about the intercession i was supposed to give [hold, say?]. it’s not so much that i’m nervous about speaking in front of people but i’m really emotional and get teary fast and mine was about their daughter [my goddaughter] and i just wanted to get it done without breaking into tears. which kinda worked. i got it out with only a trembling chin [and maybe one or two tiny tears] and was proud of myself :)

the ceremony was really nice and the highlight was definitely when they played “oh happy day” at the end and everyone started clapping while nina & benny walked down the isle out of the church together *sigh*

there was about ten minutes for congratulations in front of the church until we heard the first thunder. it only took a couple minutes more until a downpour ended the gathering and people rushed to their cars and started towards the location for the reception. we checked in and then the whole group squeezed into our room so we could practice our song for the newlyweds for the first time all together. it worked out so-so but our hopes were still high for the actual presentation.

the reception was a lot of fun. the food was great, including a BBQ-buffet with meat and seafood fresh from the grill outside on the deck of the hotel [luckily it cleared up and stopped raining later on]. there were a few speeches and presentations and A. LOT. of dancing. it was so much fun. they had an open bar [always good] and after dinner everyone just mixed up, talked to each other, went outside on the deck to chat, stood at the bar… it was simply a fun and relaxed atmosphere all night.

the presentation of our song worked out MUCH better than we could have hoped for considering the little time we had to practice together. it was a “battle” between a german hip-hop song [cruisen von massive töne] and phantom of the opera. we had made up our own lyrics about nina and benny [mainly our masters-of-the-rhyme from duesseldorf did...] – which were hilarious btw – and the girls sang the nina [phantom] part and the guys the benny [cruisen] part. the guys all had some hip-hop accessories [baseball hats, sunglasses, fat chains...] and were going crazy while we were all “romantic” with a rose in our hands. it was AWESOME! we blew everyone [including ourselves] away and it was so much fun!

there was cake around midnight, all the traditional things but not too much, a lot of dancing [the DJ rocked the house!] and chatting and laughing and celebrating… it was great. C and i were in bed around 4:30 am. unfortunately we only had about five and a half hours of sleep because we had to get up for breakfast and check out but it was okay. a bunch of guests stayed at the hotel so we were a pretty big group for the breakfast buffet and it was a nice way to wrap up the whole thing. so, we have another couple happily married in the group and another amazing wedding to remember…

PS: you can all the pictures of the wedding over @ flickr of course…

so i took thursday and friday off. wednesday night was the polterabend for nina & benny at their place. we were all a little worried because the weather has been nothing like summer with lots of rain and cool temperatures lately. with over 120 expected guests who were not supposed to go into but stay around the house and in the backyard, rain would have been pretty bad. but it got nice right on time and we ended up having a really nice sunset and a dry and even somewhat mild night. so besides nice weather, yummy food, beer, lots of conversations and laughter of course there were broken dishes …

burning groom’s pants, that were buried in the backyard …

and the bride’s shoes stolen and nailed to a tree

…

then on friday was the official ceremony at the city hall in bremen. again, the weather was really nice after it had been raining the entire thursday. seems like this marriage is under a seriously lucky star ;) so as of friday, july 11th 2008, right around 11:30 am, nina and benny are officially married and no longer living and loving “in sin” :)

it was a nice ceremony with a small champagne reception afterwards followed by a tour of the city hall. once we were done with that, there were a bunch of benny’s students waiting outside with roses and a song and we had (soap-)bubbles and roses as well. so they had to walk though a path of roses and bubbles while the students sang… it was really beautiful.

we took leni with us when the newlyweds went to lunch/dinner with the best man, maid-of-honor and family. so besides it being the day her parents got married it also made history as being the day uncle C introduced her to pop-tarts [strawberry, sugar-frosted, in the house thanks to my girl maren], she chased speedy around the apartment imitating her “wruff” and played with soap-bubbles for the first time :)

it was an exciting morning [with no nap] so she was “out” as soon as i put her down back at home. i even had to wake her up at around 4:30 pm in order to make sure she wouldn’t be awake half the night… once the party came back from the restaurant, i packed leni up, dropped her off at nina’’s parent’s place where she stayed the night, picked up C and we went back to the house where we sat outside chatting and having leftovers from the polterabend for a while longer.

so far, everything around this wedding has been exceptionally nice and i’m sure the “big day” with the church ceremony and reception next saturday will be just as great. especially since i finally have an outfit ;) so, how was your weekend?